476 



live Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



PLANTING DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH 

 AMERICA. 



Eubber Estates in Peku. 

 The good results obtained by estate owners 

 in the Montana, especially in the deparments 

 of Cuzco, Puno, Junin, and Huanuco have 

 greatly stimulated the rubber industry of Peru. 

 The forests in these regions contain a very large 

 proportion of caucho trees, which have to be 

 dealt with under special regulations. The 

 Government, therefore, decided to adopt two 

 separate forms of contract for concessions. The 

 first form is for the leasing of a few hectares 

 of land, for the term of ten years, upon the 

 condition that no trees shall be cut down or 

 destroyed, and a royalty of four shillings for 

 every one hundred-and-one pounds of rubber 

 extracted must be paid by the concessionaires, 

 together with the export duty, which amounts 

 to eight cents of a Peruvian sol (about 2d.) 

 per kilogram of ordinary rubber, and five cents 

 of a sol on caucho, payable at the Cuetoro House, 

 upon the exportation of the rubber. The 

 second form of contract is for the renting of 

 '• estradas gomeras,'' or rubber walks. Each 

 round, or walk contains one hundred-and- 

 fifty rubber-bearing trees, and the concessio- 

 naire is required to pay a rent of five-pence per 

 annum for each walk, and the same amount for 

 each two acres of ground upon which the trees 

 are situated. This is, of course, in addition to the 

 ordinary export duty. To gain a concession 

 under either of these forms of contract, the pros- 

 pective lessee must first employ an expert sur- 

 veyor, who must be nominated by the Govern- 

 ment ; plans must then be drawn up and also 

 accepted by the Minister of Industries. The 

 concessionaire is required to give a guarantee, 

 at the rate of two shillings, nominal value of the 

 bonds of the internal debt, for each two acres of 

 land occupied by the rubber concession. In the 

 case of the first form of contract, ten shillings 

 must likewise be deposited in the same bonds. 

 The interest from these deposits is either paid, 

 or accumulates in favour of the concessionaire. 

 It is easily seen that these are wise regulations, 

 for they prevent large tracts of land lying idle 

 through apathy, or want of means, on the part 

 of the lessees, and the deposit has the advantage 

 of not being an objectionable tax, but merely a 

 small investment. The policy of the Peruvian 

 Government is certainly most generous, and is 

 well calculated to protect and advance the india- 

 rubber industry. Under the first form of con- 

 tract the Government only participates in the 

 results ; should no rubber be extracted from the 

 trees, then the State requires the concessionaire 

 to pay nothing. Under the second form of con- 

 tract the Government requires such a small rent 

 that nearly all the rubber enterprises of Peru, 

 working under those conditions, are payiDg well. 

 The absolute and perpetual ownership ot Mon- 

 tana lands can be acquired at the rate of ten 

 shillings for every two-and-a-half acres. 

 Mate Tea in Brazil. 

 The next most important State in Southern 

 Brazil is Parana, the staple industry of which is 

 the preparation of mate or Brazilian tea. The 

 shrub, from which the leaves for making this tea 



are collected, grows wild in the great forests of 

 the interior, and thousands of labourers are em- 

 ployed in gathering the leaves, which are then 

 dried over fires made of woods which, when 

 burning, give off aromatic fumes. The process 

 of " drying " lasts for about twenty-four hours, 

 after which the shrivelled leaves are ground to a 

 coarse powder and sewn up in hide bags ready 

 for export. Mate tea, which is the universal 

 beverage of South America, is prepared for 

 drinking in the following manner ; The pow- 

 dered leaves are placed in a small bowl, and 

 boiling water is then poured upon them causing 

 an infusion, A long silver or china tube, having 

 a perforated bulb at its lower extremity, is next 

 placed in the tea, which is sucked up the tube 

 in the same manner as drinks from American 

 soda-fountains. Mate forms a hygenic kind of 

 tea which, although much appreciated in 

 iSouth America, is as yet little known in Europe, 

 During the Paraguayan War both armies used 

 this beverage with excellent results. During 

 protracted engagements, and when it was neces- 

 sary tj undertake long and rapid marches, the 

 soldiers were almost exclusively fed on mate, 

 and the commanding officers of both forces 

 testify to the increased powers of physical en- 

 durance which it gave the troops under their 

 command. The War Ministries of Germany and 

 the United States are now experimenting with 

 this invigorating beverage. The " peons,'' or 

 cowboys of the Brazilian prairies, upon rising 

 in the morning take a bowl of mate, and are 

 then capable ol riding hard through the swelter- 

 ing heau of a tropical day without any food 

 whatever, their only proper meal being taken 

 in the evening, when the cool night breezes 

 awaken life and energy. The exportation of 

 mate from this State to the various countries of 

 South America is very considerable, amounting 

 in one year to the value of £l,600,0U0. 



DR. P. H. BAHR ON THE MONGOOSE 

 IN FIJI. 



And the Jungle Fowl ok Fiji. 

 Dr. P. H. Bahr [the expert, who is now in 

 Ceylon, investigating "sprue." — Ed. CO.] in 

 his "Notes on the Avifauna of the Fiji Islands" 

 (Ibis, April 1912), says : " Two events have 

 happened since Finsch, Hartiaub, and Layard 

 wrote on the zoology of Fiji, which have pro- 

 foundly modified the proportional status ot the 

 local avitauna. I refer to the introduction — to 

 my mind, an almost criminal act — of the mon- 

 goose and the myuah (Acridotheres tristis) from 

 India. The former of these pests was intro- 

 duced some twenty-five years ago to keep in 

 check the number of rats which were destroying 

 the sugar cane. The result, as elsewhere, has 

 been that the rats are still found in plenty, 

 whereas the more defenceless birds have suf- 

 fered. To such an extent has the mongoose 

 increased that it is now a common and obvious 

 feature of the landscape. The rearing of 

 domestic fowls has become almost an impossi- 

 bility. Within the confines of our garden in 

 Suva I had little difficulty in killing over thirty 

 of these animals in less than a fortnight by 



